[How to] Factory Restore (or Fix a Bricked Phone)

[jbaileysr]

My phone is frozen in Android system recovery mode (3e) and the volume up and downs do not work. When i depress the home softkeys I get a white triangle with an exclamation point (!) with an android logo underneath. I cannot download anything because I cannot get into the download mode by removing the battery and using my usb cable. I'm stuck in the system recovery mode with no escape.

 

[jbaileysr]

I'm using a samsung fascinate, which has just updated to 2.3 gingerbread. No problems before.

 

[nmoreman]

I remember something about that. Pull the battery, plug your phone into the computer and try manipulating
the buttons that way. You can power it off the computer without the battery, I remember that as a last ditch measure - I don't have Epic, so forget the particulars.
Look around in the forum as well as go to xda and look for stickies in there at the beginning, they are more technical and you will probably see this there.

Another idea is to find the Samsung restore, I had to do that the second day I had mine, I loaded GSM and erased everything. Its called Samsung Simple or along those lines. Google it, I found it on the Samsung
site, another place to look. Again, pull the battery and try connected to the computer.

 

[shadeb26]

I can't get this to work. odin is stuck on sbl.bin. previously it was stuck on factoryfs, the time before that my phone was stuck with a white screen. I am trying to get back to EC05. I have tried removing the battery and the sd card. this time I have the sd card but no battery. this is what odin says now:.

<ID:0/013> Added!!
<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..
<OSM> Check MD5.. Do not unplug the cable..
<OSM> Please wait..
<OSM> SPH-D700-EB13-8Gb-REL.tar.md5 is valid.
<OSM> Checking MD5 finished Sucessfully..
<OSM> Leave CS..
<ID:0/013> Odin v.3 engine (ID:13)..
<ID:0/013> File analysis..
<ID:0/013> SetupConnection..
<ID:0/013> Initialzation..
<ID:0/013> Get PIT for mapping..
<ID:0/013> Firmware update start..
<ID:0/013> param.lfs
<ID:0/013> Sbl.bin

please help:'(

 

[shadeb26]

you still have that Samsung installer? I am having troubles with odin pls help?:'(

 

[Atlienzz]

My wife wants to go back to stock from syndicate frozen. I'm cool with restoring to stock, but without titanium on stock how would I go about restoring contacts and apps?

Edit:

Nevermind, just went back to stock. Backed up all contacts as a VCF before reverting and am working on importing that. Thanks.

 

[nmoreman]

The first (at least for me) after you have signed into Google and market is active, is redownload Titanium Backup, then open and run - you have what you had originally.

Works the same when flashing any new rom, which is essentially what you are doing when you chose stock.

P.S. I took my kids all back to stock, I loved Syndicate, but for them, no tinkering (meaning maintenance by me) was better as well as battery life.

 

[Atlienzz]

I was under the impression Titanium only worked with root which I wasn't really wanting to do. Either way I'm back to stock now and things appear to be cool with contacts and apps.

I'm keeping syndicate on my phone since I've had no issues with it. On her phone she kept getting force closes and apps not working even after reflashing several times over the past few months. I like that stock is now gingerbread, I may find a gingerbread rom I like sometime soon. I just don't want all those freaking stock apps.

 

[Max Myakishev-Rempel]

Sprint Samsung Epic 4G.
I am still surprized how much time I spent on fixing Epic 4G!
It seemed like a decent phone, but had several serious problems:
1. Short battery life = upgraded to thick 2x battery with a thick cover.
2. Spring has very poor coverage = after a year of suffering discovered, that roaming and data roaming are free and now always use roaming option no matter what. That solved signal problem but there is no 4G anymore.
3. The physical keyboard skipps keys especially if a key is repeated twice. I was really disappointed about that for 1.5 years.
Gingerbread update, as appears now doesn't solve this problem.
So what I did:
(originally I rooted my Froyo (old android os) and installed a keyboard fix. Rooting is a process that allows modifying the Android system deep inside. The original fix didn't fix the problem. ) Then I discovered that my phone doesn't install the gingerbread update that was feeded by Sprint. After a couple of months, I decided to force it and succeded.
(This set of instructions was great and educational, but didn't work for me - http://forums.androidcentral.com/ep...95-rooting-ei22-gingerbread-instructions.html
the phone would beep (1+3) vibrations signaling about the system crash after restart.)

Here are the steps that worked:
1. Download "App list backup" from market.
https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...e.backup&feature=search_result&token=EstcPaN0
Backup the list of apps to sd card. The program then helps installing the apps from the market one by one. Since there is so many of them it remembers which ones were installed. Not more than that.(Titanium backup is great except it requires rooting which I am not sure I want anymore since rooting prevents automatic upgrades).
2. Followed this instruction to Flash/Restore to Froyo EC05 (Procedure #1)
http://forums.androidcentral.com/ep...68-how-factory-restore-fix-bricked-phone.html
3. Manually upgraded Froyo to Gingerbread.
http://forums.androidcentral.com/sp...read-epic-4g-official-gingerbread-thread.html
4. Installed a custom kernel with a keyboard fix.
Epic GB kernel sources! (11/22/11 EI22 keyfix kernel) - xda-developers

A quick test shows that the keyboard lag has been fixed. Otherwise it is an official Gingerbread eligible for further automatic updates.

Here are the files I used.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/83934/epic/index.html

 

[CACKER1973]

I am new to this whole rooting and I have new epic 4g with gingerbread. Well I bricked it trying to install the sleeper rom and the phone froze. I removed the battery and now the phone shows a picture of a phone with a line to a computer with an warning triangle. The phone does nothting!!!! Please help I need to bring back to life if possible.

 

[Paul627g]

I am new to this whole rooting and I have new epic 4g with gingerbread. Well I bricked it trying to install the sleeper rom and the phone froze. I removed the battery and now the phone shows a picture of a phone with a line to a computer with an warning triangle. The phone does nothting!!!! Please help I need to bring back to life if possible.

Follow procedure #1 in the OP of this thread. That will put you back on Froyo EC05. From there once you boot up within a few minutes to a half hour you should receive the OTA to EG22 Gingerbread.

 

[adlebo]

Paul can you update the OP on how to ODIN back from MTD and CM7? I know you have to check repartition but do you also need a PIT file? Or is the TAR file enough.

 

[Paul627g]

Paul can you update the OP on how to ODIN back from MTD and CM7? I know you have to check repartition but do you also need a PIT file? Or is the TAR file enough.

Yes you need the pit file...

Check repartition, click auto reboot.

PIT File


We are in the process of updating the Rooting guide and I will also go in and update the beginning of this guide for updated instructions on returning to stock from MTD.

 

[rando991]

GOSH, still no EI22 nor EL30 stock tar leak!

 

[Paul627g]

GOSH, still no EI22 nor EL30 stock tar leak!

It may never come..... If EL30 does end up being the final build for Gingerbread which I think it maybe since GB 2.3.7 that we got on the NS4G was basically updates for Wallet then you may finally see something down the road. EI22 now being a previous official build they probably will pass on releasing that ever.

 

[rando991]

I wouldn't mind if they don't release EI22. If they did release EL30 I would hope it would be a full file, not just the update.

 

[ifallinrivers]

Paul, I am having the same problem addressed by CACKER1973. I followed almost every method you have suggested in post 1 to no avail. Every time, including my original attempt to root my phone, I am abruptly met with a red sign that says FAIL! this is very frustrating as nothing I do seems to be working. Please help. I have attached a picture of the results of my attempt at restoring to Froyo EC05 if that helps at all.

 

[Paul627g]

Paul, I am having the same problem addressed by CACKER1973. I followed almost every method you have suggested in post 1 to no avail. Every time, including my original attempt to root my phone, I am abruptly met with a red sign that says FAIL! this is very frustrating as nothing I do seems to be working. Please help. I have attached a picture of the results of my attempt at restoring to Froyo EC05 if that helps at all.

Try using the Froyo EB13 procedure #2... Its a step backwards but that package seems to work when EC05 doesn't... If its still giving you issues it usually seems to come down to connection problems. Normally cable related...

I know, they charge and do mass storage connections but sometimes they just don't want to work for Odin.

Report back with results.

Good luck

 

[ifallinrivers]

I tried to restore to EB13 however again, no luck. I have tried 2 different cables and four different USB ports. Do you think the cord could be the problem? I am hoping there is a different solution to this as I don't have very many cords available to me. Also would there be any surefire way to know if a cord will work or not? or will I just have to guess and check until one works?

 

[Paul627g]

If you have access to a different computer you may want to even try that...



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